Art on the Edge of Fashion at the Arizona State University Art Museum focused on contemporary art that uses the highly readable visual language of clothing and fashion. This exhibition, organized by Heather S. Lineberry, premiered on February 1, 1997, and closed on April 27, 1997.
Eight artists from across the U.S. and Canada were featured in the exhibition: Charles LeDray (New York), Christine LoFaso (Chicago), Kerrie Peterson (Los Angeles), Elaine Reichek (New York), Beverly Semmes (New York), Jana Sterbak (Quebec), Nick Vaughn, (Albuquerque), and Anne Wilson (Chicago). The exhibition included sculpture, photographs, installations, performance and video.
All eight artists use the familiar language of clothing and appearance. Many of the pieces in the exhibition actually took the form of clothing, although they were not meant to be “clothing”. The objects were completely unwearable due to their size, materials, or distortions.
“We read people quickly and easily based on their appearance, on their clothing, hair, skin color and tone, and body shape,” explains Lineberry. “The work in this exhibition questions quick assumptions based on appearance, and scrutinizes the forces, like fashion, that determine appearance and so indicate identity.”
The premiere opening of Art on the Edge of Fashion was February 1, 1997 from 8:00pm to 10:00pm at the ASU Art Museum. For this one evening national and Phoenix-area artists performed and designed wearable art for the opening.
Other events included a talk by Curator Heather Lineberry on February 11th at 7:30pm, a talk by artist Anne Wilson on March 25th, a performance by artist Nick Cave, who makes costumes inspired by African ceremonies and American street life, on Friday April 4, 1997 at 7:30pm, and a talk by artist Philip Glass on April 10th at 7:30pm. A catalogue of the exhibition with essays by Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe and Heather S. Lineberry is available. Major support for this catalog was provided by the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation. Art on the Edge of Fashion was funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts; the Arizona Commission on the Arts; and the Friends of the ASU Art Museum.
This exhibition traveled to Cranbrook in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
January 16 – March 29, 1998
This webpage won “The Angel of Fashion” Award
sponsored by the fashionangel.com Web Directory
Image credit: